With Republicans threatening massive cuts to Medicaid in their reconciliation bill, Pressley is standing with seniors, folks with disabilities, children, and everyone whose lives depend on it

“Medicaid is not some line item on a spreadsheet. Medicaid is healthcare. Medicaid is a lifeline. No one should be in the business of taking away health care from people.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) rallied with caregivers, advocates, and fellow lawmakers at a 24-hour vigil to protect Medicaid from Republicans’ cruel budget cuts that would devastate communities across this country. Congresswoman Pressley made clear that Medicaid isn’t just a line item in the Republican budget, but a lifeline for millions of families who call this country home.

“Half of the children in America are covered by Medicaid. It allows people with complex chronic conditions to afford the medications they need to stay alive. And 10% of Medicaid enrollees are over the age of 60. It allows our elders and our neighbors with disabilities to receive care in their homes and to stay in their communities. This Republican reconciliation bill guts the programs that hold our communities together – Medicaid, but also SNAP, Head Start, and the VA – programs that give people a fighting chance,” Congresswoman Pressley declared. “Again, the cruelty is the point. Calling Medicaid a lifeline is not exaggeration, it is a fact.”

With Republicans proposing disastrous cuts to essential, life-saving programs including Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start, and the VA, Congresswoman Pressley has been speaking out and leveraging every tool to defend vulnerable communities that stand to be harmed by Republican’s reckless budget.

In the House Financial Services Committee’s markup of Republicans’ reconciliation bill, Rep. Pressley shared the a powerful story of a family from a Republican district at risk from the proposed Medicaid cuts. In the House Oversight Committee’s markup of the bill, she challenged Republicans to oppose devasting cuts to food assistance – only to be met with silence.

A full transcript of her remarks at today’s Medicaid vigil is available below and video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley, Lawmakers, Advocates Rally in 24-Hour Vigil to Defend Medicaid, Protect Vulnerable Communities
U.S. Capitol Building
May 8, 2025

They kept thanking me for being here – I said, “Are you kidding me?” This is my family right here – my movement family. There’s no place I’d rather be – and I had to be.

I wanted to thank you all for being here. I’m so grateful for you justice-seekers, you freedom-fighters – you could’ve chosen to be anywhere else, but you chose to be here.

Not because of your jobs, your titles – I’m not here because I’m your Congresswoman, I’m here because I’m your sister in struggle and solidarity. I’m here because I’m a human being who gives a damn about other human beings. 

Because we are one human family – and our destinies are truly tied.

I am so inspired by all of you. I have long believed that every great movement requires three things: imagination, strategy, and stamina.

Can you all give yourselves permission to radically dream that every person who needs care, can get it?

You are employing the strategy of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, which has been proven throughout history to be the way that we resist tyranny, that we resist oppression, that we advance progress.

And many of you have been here for 24 hours – so you are certainly demonstrating your stamina.

So imagination – I am just audacious enough to believe that we can protect Medicaid.

That we can have care, not cuts.

I’m just audacious enough to dream and to imagine that everyone deserves care.

We are joined together by a moral purpose and a moral moment: to defend Medicaid and the people we love from a Republican budget that is cruel by design.

The cruelty is the point.

A budget that would rip $880 billion from Medicaid – not to save money, but to bankroll tax cuts for Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s billionaire friends. Billionaires who don’t need another dime. People who will never face the agony of choosing between medicine and rent, groceries and insulin.

Medicaid is not some line item on a spreadsheet.

Medicaid is health care. Medicaid is a lifeline. No one should be in the business of taking away health care from people.

This is not about Democrats versus Republicans. This is about right and wrong, good and evil – it is as simple that.

Denying people healthcare – that’s wrong. That’s evil.

Republicans are firing food inspectors in the Department of Agriculture. They are dismantling public health agencies like the CDC and NIH. They are bringing back measles.

All this as a part of the so-called DOGE initiative.

How frightening that these clueless DOGE bros are determining the future of our country.

Certainly, our greatest wealth as a nation is the health of our people.

I’m all for a government that is more efficient – but this ain’t it.

There is nothing efficient about making people sicker.

There is nothing efficient about making people hungrier.

There is nothing efficient about making people poorer.

There is nothing efficient about making people more vulnerable. 

There is nothing efficient about buying more toy rockets for Elon Musk while working parents can’t afford baby formula or blood pressure medication.

The shame and the sham of it all.

Cutting Medicaid would hurt folks from every walk of life and at every stage of their life.

Medicaid covers 2 out of 5 births in this country. Slashing Medicaid will only accelerate the maternal health crisis and widen the racial disparities that already harm Black women in my district – the MA 7^th – and across the country.

Donald Trump is a dictator, y’all. And the reason why Republicans is because they want a citizenry that is ignorant and uninformed.

They want a citizenry that is indifferent to the suffering of their neighbors.

They want a citizenry that is inactive.

The only way to beat a dictator is with defiance.

And that’s what you’re doing here today.

So I thank you – I thank you on behalf of the children of this country.

Half of the children in America are covered by Medicaid. It allows people with complex chronic conditions to afford the medications they need to stay alive.

And 10% of Medicaid enrollees are over the age of 60. It allows our elders and our neighbors with disabilities to receive care in their homes and to stay in their communities.

This Republican reconciliation bill guts the programs that hold our communities together – Medicaid, but also SNAP, Head Start, and the VA – programs that give people a fighting chance.

Again, the cruelty is the point.

Calling Medicaid a lifeline is not exaggeration, it is a fact.

Policy is not abstract. It is not neutral. 

Policy and budgets determine who lives.

Policy and budgets determine who dies.

Policy and budgets determine who survives, who thrives.

This is policy violence.

This is a fight for dignity. It is a fight for justice. And we will do everything we can to stop this cruel budget from becoming law.

Again, we are appealing to people of conscience.

It only takes four Republicans to do the right thing, y’all.

Four to stand with the people that they serve, instead of being a cult of cowards, complicit in the wholesale harm of our people.

It just takes four Republicans of conscience to do the right thing, to stand up for the people they serve.

Four to show a shred of humanity. Four to protect Medicaid.

Let’s make sure they hear us. Today, tomorrow, and every day until they do.

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